530 
Dairy-Farming in the Netherlands. 
ing from the farmsteading, but the cheese having been made is 
generally " pickled " and partly cured in cellars more or less 
beneath the dairy or the farmhouse. The cheese-room, properly 
so called, however, is in reality the cow-stalls during the period 
of the year when the cows are on the pastures night and day, 
that being the cheese-making season. A kind of bass matting 
is affixed to the pillars at the head of the cow-stalls, and where 
the cows stood in winter the cheese is stored in summer. In 
some cases, where dairy accommodation is not sufficient, the 
whole process of cheese-making is carried on in the cow-stall. 
Everything is kept scrupulously clean, and, in fact, in summer 
the cowhouse is generally abundantly decorated with bright 
copper and tin household and dairy utensils. 
Edam Clieesp. — The globular red-skinned cheese, generally 
called " Dutch " in England, is, beyond all question, the most 
important and the most distinctive dairy product of the country. 
It is chiefly made in the province of North Holland, but I have 
seen excellent specimens which were made in France, Russia, 
and elsewhere. The process is very simple, and the following 
description is the result of my own observation during an early 
morning tour in the rich grass-land district between Hoorn and 
Enkhuisen, where proprietor- farmers prevail. The farms are 
about 50 acres in extent, and from 15 to 18 cows are kept. 
The cows are milked morning and evening, the milker finding 
his way to them in a boat, which also carries the cheese-tub 
and the rennet in addition to the milk-cans and other necessary 
articles. As soon as the cows are milked, the rennet is added 
to the mess in the cheese-tub, and the milker gently paddles 
home his freighted boat. By the time he arrives at the farm- 
house, the curd is about ready for the remainder of the cheese- 
making processes to be proceeded with. 
In a dairy of 15 cows, about 10 or 11 cheeses would be made 
on an average every day, one half in the morning and the re- 
mainder in the evening. In the case of an odd number, the 
small quantity of curd left over would be kept until the next 
milking, and added to the curd then obtained. Very few 
farmers use a thermometer : but those who do, reckon to put 
in the rennet at a temperature of about 90^ Fahr., or perhaps a 
little less. The curd is not cooked, but in from 15 to 20 minutes 
after the rennet has been added it is cut with a harp-like wire 
gang-knife, and the whey is baled out as completely as possible, 
being finally got rid of by tipping the cheese-tub after the curd 
has been consolidated together as much as possible by the hand. 
The process of baling entails no loss of curd, but that of tipping 
does, and this is counteracted by pouring the last of the whey 
through a sieve, which retains the particles of curd. The curd 
